Friday, April 9
Waco, Texas
7:30 p.m.
Baylor
vs
West Virginia
Back to Big 12 Play as BSB Preps for West Virginia
4/8/2021 2:44:00 PM | Baseball
The Bears and Mountaineers will begin the series on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU
WACO, Texas – Baylor is back in Big 12 play when it hosts West Virginia this weekend for a three-game series at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears (19-10, 1-5 Big 12), who are on a six-game win streak and the Mountaineers (11-12, 3-3 Big 12) will play a nationally-televised game on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU. Game two will be at 3 p.m. on Saturday and game three will start at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Baylor leads 12-10 against West Virginia in the all-time series, including 7-6 under head coach Steve Rodriguez. The Bears are 8-4 in Waco against the Mountaineers, while the last time the two teams met was March 22-24, 2019 at Baylor Ballpark with BU sweeping the three-game series.
Individual tickets for the games are still available on BaylorBears.com/tickets. Promotions for this weekend include trading card giveaways (Fri.) and Bark at the Park (Sat.) with a dog bowl giveaway.
SERIES INFO
Date: April 9-11 (Fri.-Sun.)
Game Times: 7:30 p.m./3 p.m./11:30 a.m.
Site: Waco, Texas / Baylor Ballpark (5,000) (50 percent capacity)
TV: Big 12 Now (ESPN+)
• Talent: (Fri.) Anish Shroff (pxp), Mike Rooney (color)
(Sat. & Sun.) Lincoln Rose (pxp), Pat Combs (color)
Radio: ESPN 1660/92.3 FM
• Talent: Derek Smith (pxp)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast.com
Twitter Updates: @BaylorBaseball
Series History: BU leads, 12-10
Streak: Baylor, W4
First Meeting: April 5, 2013
Last Meeting: March 22-24, 2019 (BU swept the series)
Under Rodriguez: 7-6
PITCHING MATCHUP
Fri. April 9 – LHP Tyler Thomas (3-2, 1.65 ERA) (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. LHP Jackson Wolf (3-2, 2.36 ERA)
Sat. April 10 – RHP Blake Helton (2-2, 3.49 ERA) vs. LHP Adam Tulloch (0-2, 6.86 ERA)
Sun. April 11 – RHP Hayden Kettler (3-1, 3.90 ERA) vs. LHP Ben Hampton (2-0, 2.63 ERA)
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Swept by TCU two weeks ago, Baylor baseball (19-10, 1-5) is carrying the momentum of a six-game winning streak going into a weekend series against West Virginia (11-12, 3-3) at Baylor Ballpark.
"Those (losses) kind of knocked us in the face a little bit," said closer Luke Boyd, who has five saves with a 1.23 ERA. "To have some good energy going into this weekend, we'll always take that rather than coming off a loss, obviously."
Undefeated in April (5-0) and 17-2 at home, Baylor had midweek wins over Texas State and UTA sandwiched around a four-game sweep of North Carolina A&T. The series with West Virginia begins with a 7:30 p.m. matchup on Friday that will be nationally televised by ESPNU.
"It will be fun having people watching, no doubt," said second-year freshman centerfielder Jared McKenzie. "But, it's just another baseball game. Just being able to go out there and have a lot of fun, nothing changes."
Including dropping their only two home games of the season against Texas, the Bears started out 1-5 in league play against a pair of top-10 teams. Sitting atop the Big 12 standings, TCU (21-7, 6-0) and Texas (22-8, 7-2) are 10th and fourth, respectively, in the latest D1 Baseball rankings.
"We struggled with the bats a little bit those first two weekends, we saw really good pitching," said McKenzie, who's hitting .354 with seven homers and 22 RBI. "I think it comes down to, everybody's going to be good. And we can't make mistakes, because when we make mistakes, they're going to capitalize on them. Being able to minimize those mistakes and just play the game one pitch at a time is going to be beneficial."
The first two weekends in conference play just accentuated how young this Baylor lineup is. Catcher Andy Thomas and first baseman Chase Wehsener are the only holdovers from the lineup that knocked out West Virginia's Friday night starter, Jackson Wolf (3-2, 3.26 ERA), in the fourth inning two years ago in a 12-0 win in the middle game of a three-game sweep.
"The last time we faced Wolf, we had three first-rounders in the lineup with (Shea) Langeliers, (Davis) Wendzel and (Nick) Loftin," Rodriguez said. "We had pretty stellar athletes who were full-grown men at that point.
"That's what we're continuing to develop. We're young, but we're talented. And we're wanting those guys to take some of those immature moments, the young mistakes, and minimize them as best we can, to make sure we're playing at a peak level on a consistent basis."
Baylor showed some maturity in Tuesday's game against UTA, when the Bears rallied from a 6-1 second-inning deficit to beat the visiting Mavericks, 7-6. After chipping away, Baylor scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth when Tre Richardson drove in Wehsener with a double down the left-field line.
"It was a big confidence booster, for sure," McKenzie said. "That's something we hadn't really done this year."
Boyd said a 4-3, 11-inning loss to UTA earlier in the season "left a bad taste in our mouths, especially me. I think that was my first loss in three years."
"I really wanted to pitch against them," said Boyd, who retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his fifth save of the season. "But, if I wasn't, I was hoping it was because we had a big enough lead. I just wanted to beat that team. . . . To get punched in the face a little bit right there in the second inning, it kind of gave us a wake-up call. But a good comeback win like that shows if we just execute and get runners on and move them around, we'll be in good shape, no matter who we're playing."
In Friday's series opener, Wolf will be paired against Baylor junior left-hander Tyler Thomas (3-2, 1.65). Thomas and sophomore right-hander Blake Helton (2-2, 3.49) threw back-to-back complete-game shutouts in the series against North Carolina A&T.
"That's what we saw when we recruited him," Rodriguez said of Thomas, who has developed into one of the best Friday night starters in the league. "We knew he had a very good fastball with a plus-breaking ball. . . . He's gained the confidence we were hoping he would get, and at the time being able to produce on a consistent basis – getting us really deep into games and allowing our offense to start to produce a little bit."
Helton will be matched against West Virginia lefty Adam Tulloch (0-2, 6.82) in Saturday's 3 p.m. game, with Baylor senior right-hander Hayden Kettler and WVU left-hander Ben Hampton (2-2, 2.63) getting the nod in Sunday's 11 a.m. series finale.
"They're aggressive in a lot of different ways," Rodriguez said of a West Virginia club that ranks eighth in the Big 12 in batting average (.254) and pitching ERA (5.77). "They run well (33 stolen bases), they pitch well. We've just got to make sure we can limit their opportunities to score."
STORY LINES
• Baylor remains as one of the top hitting teams in the country statistically with a .307 team average which is good enough for 1st in the Big 12 and 8th in the nation. With the Bears 301 hits in 29 games, BU ranks 1st in the conference and 2nd in the country. Six of Baylor's top 10 hitters are hitting .300 or better.
• The Bears are 17-2 this season at Baylor Ballpark. BU has finished its home schedule with a .500 record or better in all 21 seasons (Since 1999) and is 473-208 all-time at the park.
• The Bears outfield have a knack for robbing home runs as Kyle Nevin (LF), Jared McKenzie (CF) and Davion Downey (RF) have all robbed one home run in 2021. On Tuesday against UT Arlington, Downey made a diving catch in right and made it to No. 3 on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays. Nevin one-upped Downey in the same game with a leaping grab to bring a home run back inside the park and was the No. 1 SC Top 10 play on Tuesday night. Earlier in the season, Downey was No. 4 on top plays with his home run-robbing catch against Sam Houston on March 2.
• Tyler Thomas continued his dominance on the mound after throwing a complete-game shutout against North Carolina A&T on Thursday. It was the first complete-game shutout since Cody Bradford did so against TCU on April 20, 2018. On the season, Thomas is sporting a 1.65 ERA and leads the team in innings pitched (43.2) and strikeouts (44). Thomas ranks 4th in the Big 12 in ERA and in hits allowed per nine innings.
• With the two shutouts against NC A&T, Baylor is now 1st in the Big 12 and 2nd in the nation in shutouts with five in 2021. Tyler Thomas and Blake Helton went back-to-back with complete game shutouts against North Carolina A&T which is the first time that has happened for BU since 2017.
• After hitting .406 last season in the leadoff spot, in 2021 Jared McKenzie has a .354 average. McKenzie is 9th in the Big 12 in batting average and ranks 2nd in the conference in hits (45) and 3rd nationally, in addition, he is 1st in the nation in runs scored (38) and 3rd in the Big 12 in total bases (76). He also has seven home runs this season after not hitting any in 2020.
To stay up to date throughout the season on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on Facebook (Baylor Baseball), Twitter (@BaylorBaseball) and Instagram (@BaylorBaseball).
Baylor leads 12-10 against West Virginia in the all-time series, including 7-6 under head coach Steve Rodriguez. The Bears are 8-4 in Waco against the Mountaineers, while the last time the two teams met was March 22-24, 2019 at Baylor Ballpark with BU sweeping the three-game series.
Individual tickets for the games are still available on BaylorBears.com/tickets. Promotions for this weekend include trading card giveaways (Fri.) and Bark at the Park (Sat.) with a dog bowl giveaway.
SERIES INFO
Date: April 9-11 (Fri.-Sun.)
Game Times: 7:30 p.m./3 p.m./11:30 a.m.
Site: Waco, Texas / Baylor Ballpark (5,000) (50 percent capacity)
TV: Big 12 Now (ESPN+)
• Talent: (Fri.) Anish Shroff (pxp), Mike Rooney (color)
(Sat. & Sun.) Lincoln Rose (pxp), Pat Combs (color)
Radio: ESPN 1660/92.3 FM
• Talent: Derek Smith (pxp)
Live Stats: StatBroadcast.com
Twitter Updates: @BaylorBaseball
Series History: BU leads, 12-10
Streak: Baylor, W4
First Meeting: April 5, 2013
Last Meeting: March 22-24, 2019 (BU swept the series)
Under Rodriguez: 7-6
PITCHING MATCHUP
Fri. April 9 – LHP Tyler Thomas (3-2, 1.65 ERA) (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. LHP Jackson Wolf (3-2, 2.36 ERA)
Sat. April 10 – RHP Blake Helton (2-2, 3.49 ERA) vs. LHP Adam Tulloch (0-2, 6.86 ERA)
Sun. April 11 – RHP Hayden Kettler (3-1, 3.90 ERA) vs. LHP Ben Hampton (2-0, 2.63 ERA)
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Swept by TCU two weeks ago, Baylor baseball (19-10, 1-5) is carrying the momentum of a six-game winning streak going into a weekend series against West Virginia (11-12, 3-3) at Baylor Ballpark.
"Those (losses) kind of knocked us in the face a little bit," said closer Luke Boyd, who has five saves with a 1.23 ERA. "To have some good energy going into this weekend, we'll always take that rather than coming off a loss, obviously."
Undefeated in April (5-0) and 17-2 at home, Baylor had midweek wins over Texas State and UTA sandwiched around a four-game sweep of North Carolina A&T. The series with West Virginia begins with a 7:30 p.m. matchup on Friday that will be nationally televised by ESPNU.
"It will be fun having people watching, no doubt," said second-year freshman centerfielder Jared McKenzie. "But, it's just another baseball game. Just being able to go out there and have a lot of fun, nothing changes."
Including dropping their only two home games of the season against Texas, the Bears started out 1-5 in league play against a pair of top-10 teams. Sitting atop the Big 12 standings, TCU (21-7, 6-0) and Texas (22-8, 7-2) are 10th and fourth, respectively, in the latest D1 Baseball rankings.
"We struggled with the bats a little bit those first two weekends, we saw really good pitching," said McKenzie, who's hitting .354 with seven homers and 22 RBI. "I think it comes down to, everybody's going to be good. And we can't make mistakes, because when we make mistakes, they're going to capitalize on them. Being able to minimize those mistakes and just play the game one pitch at a time is going to be beneficial."
The first two weekends in conference play just accentuated how young this Baylor lineup is. Catcher Andy Thomas and first baseman Chase Wehsener are the only holdovers from the lineup that knocked out West Virginia's Friday night starter, Jackson Wolf (3-2, 3.26 ERA), in the fourth inning two years ago in a 12-0 win in the middle game of a three-game sweep.
"The last time we faced Wolf, we had three first-rounders in the lineup with (Shea) Langeliers, (Davis) Wendzel and (Nick) Loftin," Rodriguez said. "We had pretty stellar athletes who were full-grown men at that point.
"That's what we're continuing to develop. We're young, but we're talented. And we're wanting those guys to take some of those immature moments, the young mistakes, and minimize them as best we can, to make sure we're playing at a peak level on a consistent basis."
Baylor showed some maturity in Tuesday's game against UTA, when the Bears rallied from a 6-1 second-inning deficit to beat the visiting Mavericks, 7-6. After chipping away, Baylor scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth when Tre Richardson drove in Wehsener with a double down the left-field line.
"It was a big confidence booster, for sure," McKenzie said. "That's something we hadn't really done this year."
Boyd said a 4-3, 11-inning loss to UTA earlier in the season "left a bad taste in our mouths, especially me. I think that was my first loss in three years."
"I really wanted to pitch against them," said Boyd, who retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his fifth save of the season. "But, if I wasn't, I was hoping it was because we had a big enough lead. I just wanted to beat that team. . . . To get punched in the face a little bit right there in the second inning, it kind of gave us a wake-up call. But a good comeback win like that shows if we just execute and get runners on and move them around, we'll be in good shape, no matter who we're playing."
In Friday's series opener, Wolf will be paired against Baylor junior left-hander Tyler Thomas (3-2, 1.65). Thomas and sophomore right-hander Blake Helton (2-2, 3.49) threw back-to-back complete-game shutouts in the series against North Carolina A&T.
"That's what we saw when we recruited him," Rodriguez said of Thomas, who has developed into one of the best Friday night starters in the league. "We knew he had a very good fastball with a plus-breaking ball. . . . He's gained the confidence we were hoping he would get, and at the time being able to produce on a consistent basis – getting us really deep into games and allowing our offense to start to produce a little bit."
Helton will be matched against West Virginia lefty Adam Tulloch (0-2, 6.82) in Saturday's 3 p.m. game, with Baylor senior right-hander Hayden Kettler and WVU left-hander Ben Hampton (2-2, 2.63) getting the nod in Sunday's 11 a.m. series finale.
"They're aggressive in a lot of different ways," Rodriguez said of a West Virginia club that ranks eighth in the Big 12 in batting average (.254) and pitching ERA (5.77). "They run well (33 stolen bases), they pitch well. We've just got to make sure we can limit their opportunities to score."
STORY LINES
• Baylor remains as one of the top hitting teams in the country statistically with a .307 team average which is good enough for 1st in the Big 12 and 8th in the nation. With the Bears 301 hits in 29 games, BU ranks 1st in the conference and 2nd in the country. Six of Baylor's top 10 hitters are hitting .300 or better.
• The Bears are 17-2 this season at Baylor Ballpark. BU has finished its home schedule with a .500 record or better in all 21 seasons (Since 1999) and is 473-208 all-time at the park.
• The Bears outfield have a knack for robbing home runs as Kyle Nevin (LF), Jared McKenzie (CF) and Davion Downey (RF) have all robbed one home run in 2021. On Tuesday against UT Arlington, Downey made a diving catch in right and made it to No. 3 on SportsCenter's Top 10 plays. Nevin one-upped Downey in the same game with a leaping grab to bring a home run back inside the park and was the No. 1 SC Top 10 play on Tuesday night. Earlier in the season, Downey was No. 4 on top plays with his home run-robbing catch against Sam Houston on March 2.
• Tyler Thomas continued his dominance on the mound after throwing a complete-game shutout against North Carolina A&T on Thursday. It was the first complete-game shutout since Cody Bradford did so against TCU on April 20, 2018. On the season, Thomas is sporting a 1.65 ERA and leads the team in innings pitched (43.2) and strikeouts (44). Thomas ranks 4th in the Big 12 in ERA and in hits allowed per nine innings.
• With the two shutouts against NC A&T, Baylor is now 1st in the Big 12 and 2nd in the nation in shutouts with five in 2021. Tyler Thomas and Blake Helton went back-to-back with complete game shutouts against North Carolina A&T which is the first time that has happened for BU since 2017.
• After hitting .406 last season in the leadoff spot, in 2021 Jared McKenzie has a .354 average. McKenzie is 9th in the Big 12 in batting average and ranks 2nd in the conference in hits (45) and 3rd nationally, in addition, he is 1st in the nation in runs scored (38) and 3rd in the Big 12 in total bases (76). He also has seven home runs this season after not hitting any in 2020.
To stay up to date throughout the season on all things Baylor baseball, follow the team on Facebook (Baylor Baseball), Twitter (@BaylorBaseball) and Instagram (@BaylorBaseball).
Players Mentioned
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